chickensducks&agoose
Lovin' The Homestead
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Looking to beef up my emergency kit... found a bunch of 'practice' sutures on ebay, can a needle and thread really go bad?
How about expired sutures?
- Thread starter chickensducks&agoose
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MorelCabin
Quilting Extraordinaire
Don't know about the needle, but yes thread does go bad and gets very weak over time. It won't hold and will break
Boogity
Almost Self-Reliant
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We keep several tiny tubes of super glue in each first aid kit we have. We also rotate these tubes out of the kits and provide new tubes every 12 months. Super glue will usually take the place of stitches for a cut or deep wound. We also replace the surgical suture filament in each kit each year. The needles are in air-tight packages and do not "go bad".
Icu4dzs
Super Self-Sufficient
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OK guys, I know everyone has an opinion and I'm no different but the idea of a needle going bad (short of rusting which I highly doubt) frankly amuses me to no end.
Given my extensive experience with both needle and thread in the Emergency room as well as the operating room (we're talking about 40 years here) I feel "qualified" to state that the only thing that "goes bad" is the guarantee of sterility. You can re-sterilize" them and they will be just fine. Suture comes in a variety of materials and I would recommend storing either silk or nylon for long term consideration. Absorbable suture may not remain as strong for quite as long, particularly gut or chromic gut, but the other forms will remain quite good as long as they are kept/remain sterile. (yes, of course eliminating Oxygen can extend any storage/shelf life and a non-leaking vacuum works best).
Suture does not require significant strength to work if it is properly applied with perhaps the exception of steel wires for the chest wall (open heart stuff). Even sterilized cotton thread will work. Best to use un-dyed if you can but as long as it is sterile and color fast, you could be just fine.
Having said that, the issue of cyanoacrylate glue (super glue) is of significant importance on the homestead because it is "non-invasive" and works rather well for almost any purpose of approximating the epidermis. Really deep wounds may need some absorbable suture, but in a true pinch (i.e. no chromic, dexon, etc.) silk CAN be used in deep and WILL eventually resorb, but it just takes longer and some folks do get an adverse reaction to it.
I would however add one word of extreme caution when considering "super glue" in the home environment. Be absolutely fastidious (sp?) when cleaning the wound FIRST. A sterile vegetable brush is of great use in this regard. It just needs to be gentle enough not to abrade anything but damaged tissue and foreign debris.
Ivory soap works just as well as any of the expensive things we use in the operating room. (I've even used it to scrub at the OR because it does such a good job). Agitation is the key, not the chemical used.
If you clean the wound and get all the dirt and debris out of it, any closure you use will do just fine. Sutures simply have a little better "staying power" than butterfly bandages, but super glue does as good a job and is much less frightening to children in particular. Good, sterile bandaging techniques are still VERY MUCH in vogue despite what you may see on TV. The better you clean, close and bandage a wound, the better/faster it will heal (good nutrition is of course paramount to this issue because it provides the necessary 'building blocks' to make the wound healing mechanism in your "3 million year old healer" work well.
Of course be absolutely certain to avoid any contact with super glue and they eye. I can't over emphasize that point. Super glue will glue your skin together if you get it where you don't want it so be careful. A pair of playtex gloves will help here.
In addition, there just really isn't any need for antibiotic ointments on a CLEAN dry, well closed wound. Cells love each other and don't want any goop between themselves and their mates.
Hope this helps.
//BT//
Trim sends
Given my extensive experience with both needle and thread in the Emergency room as well as the operating room (we're talking about 40 years here) I feel "qualified" to state that the only thing that "goes bad" is the guarantee of sterility. You can re-sterilize" them and they will be just fine. Suture comes in a variety of materials and I would recommend storing either silk or nylon for long term consideration. Absorbable suture may not remain as strong for quite as long, particularly gut or chromic gut, but the other forms will remain quite good as long as they are kept/remain sterile. (yes, of course eliminating Oxygen can extend any storage/shelf life and a non-leaking vacuum works best).
Suture does not require significant strength to work if it is properly applied with perhaps the exception of steel wires for the chest wall (open heart stuff). Even sterilized cotton thread will work. Best to use un-dyed if you can but as long as it is sterile and color fast, you could be just fine.
Having said that, the issue of cyanoacrylate glue (super glue) is of significant importance on the homestead because it is "non-invasive" and works rather well for almost any purpose of approximating the epidermis. Really deep wounds may need some absorbable suture, but in a true pinch (i.e. no chromic, dexon, etc.) silk CAN be used in deep and WILL eventually resorb, but it just takes longer and some folks do get an adverse reaction to it.
I would however add one word of extreme caution when considering "super glue" in the home environment. Be absolutely fastidious (sp?) when cleaning the wound FIRST. A sterile vegetable brush is of great use in this regard. It just needs to be gentle enough not to abrade anything but damaged tissue and foreign debris.
Ivory soap works just as well as any of the expensive things we use in the operating room. (I've even used it to scrub at the OR because it does such a good job). Agitation is the key, not the chemical used.
If you clean the wound and get all the dirt and debris out of it, any closure you use will do just fine. Sutures simply have a little better "staying power" than butterfly bandages, but super glue does as good a job and is much less frightening to children in particular. Good, sterile bandaging techniques are still VERY MUCH in vogue despite what you may see on TV. The better you clean, close and bandage a wound, the better/faster it will heal (good nutrition is of course paramount to this issue because it provides the necessary 'building blocks' to make the wound healing mechanism in your "3 million year old healer" work well.
Of course be absolutely certain to avoid any contact with super glue and they eye. I can't over emphasize that point. Super glue will glue your skin together if you get it where you don't want it so be careful. A pair of playtex gloves will help here.
In addition, there just really isn't any need for antibiotic ointments on a CLEAN dry, well closed wound. Cells love each other and don't want any goop between themselves and their mates.
Hope this helps.
//BT//
Trim sends
